The Curtain Rises on Chaotic Times

Although Tran Mac had never been to Phu Du City, from books, he still understood about Thanh Chau's several major cities.

Phu Du City was Thanh Chau's closest major city to the north. Strategically speaking, it was Thanh Chau's first line of defense. The fall of Phu Du City meant that Nam Duong would have no natural barriers to defend it and could only fight based on the city itself.

Phung Tien was also a major city in Thanh Chau, its population second only to Nam Duong, located on Nam Duong's right flank. If Phung Tien also fell, then Nam Duong would be completely encircled by the rebel army like a dumpling.

It could be said that Nam Duong's current situation was extremely critical.

To rescue Phung Tien, and thus relieve the siege of Nam Duong, conscription was the only way.

According to Wu Shan, Binh Dinh County was only assigned a quota of five hundred because the County Magistrate was the Prefect's student. Other county towns were all assigned a quota of one thousand, and some with larger populations, even more.

Tran Mac had originally planned to go into town to find out if the rebels had attacked, but he hadn't expected that the Thanh Chau army had already lost a battle.

It had only just warmed up; it wasn't even early spring yet, right?

This speed was a bit too fast.

"Brother Wu, doesn't Thanh Chau have a hundred thousand elite troops? It's not even early spring yet, how could Phu Du City be lost?"

From Tran Mac's limited historical knowledge, past peasant uprisings in ancient times, no matter how powerful they seemed, were mostly suppressed.

In the end, a rebel army formed by a group of peasants was just a rabble. How could they be a match for regular troops, let alone in this martial arts world?

Wu Shan shook his head. He was just a minor bailiff; how could he know so clearly? He said, "I heard that at the very beginning, it seemed like they won, but then they fell into an ambush while pursuing in victory. I'm not too clear about the specifics."

Courageous and resourceful; it seemed this rebel army was not just simple peasant soldiers.

Tran Mac sipped his tea, then said, "Brother Wu, for this quota of five hundred in the county, Magistrate Thuong is thinking of recruiting from outside the city, right?"

"Brother Tran is indeed a scholar; your mind works fast." Wu Shan said, "According to the Magistrate's intention, conscription will start from outside the city. If that's not enough, then it will be supplemented from within the city."

As expected, they really don't treat people outside the city as human beings.

As for offending people?

When the city entry fee was collected before, people had already been stratified.

If you can't even afford the city entry fee, what does offending you matter?

His fingers tapped lightly on the table. Tran Mac smiled and said, "Since Brother Wu came to find me, you must have a way to help me avoid conscription."

In this current era, being drafted to go to the frontlines to kill enemies was no different from dying.

Moreover, this damned imperial court, it was already good enough that he wasn't rebelling; he couldn't possibly sell his life for it.

For him, as a transmigrator, he felt not a shred of identification or affection for the Dai Song imperial dynasty.

Wu Shan gave Tran Mac a thumbs up and said, "Brother Tran, from the first time we two met, I already felt you had a compassionate face. Last time at Zi Jin Lou, I also felt you were an extremely magnanimous person. We are brothers; how could I, your brother, bear to see you go to the battlefield..."

"The yamen has decided to start pressing men into service tomorrow. If Brother Tran doesn't want to be drafted, there are only two methods. One is to immediately go into the city, buy a house there, and move into the city right away. But this method isn't very safe. If the yamen doesn't gather enough men from outside the city, they will still take people from inside the city to fill the vacancies..."

Speaking up to this point, Wu Shan's words paused. He rubbed his hands and said in a low voice, "Spend money to avoid disaster."

"How much?" Tran Mac understood the meaning of these words. It meant spending money for a replacement. Originally, you were supposed to be conscripted, but if you paid money, you could let someone without money take your place.

However, in the current situation, this kind of replacement was probably not something they would bother with; they would just directly forcibly draft able-bodied men.

Wu Shan used his finger to dip in the tea water and wrote a number on the table.

"Five taels." Tran Mac frowned. This number didn't sound like much, but for a small mountain village like Phuc Trach Village, even if you emptied out all your assets, you couldn't come up with five taels of silver.

"Brother Tran, you are a martial artist. This five taels is the price for a martial artist. If not a martial artist, then another five taels would be needed," Wu Shan said.

Wu Shan left. When he was leaving, Tran Mac discreetly gave him an extra tael of silver.

This Wu Shan was still someone who could be dealt with. At the very least, when he took money, he actually did things. Tran Mac also needed a source of information in the yamen.

As for this conscription avoidance money, Tran Mac decided to give it.

Although he could hide in the cellar or in the mountains to evade it, firstly, doing so might implicate Wu Shan, and secondly, there was no great chaos yet; Tran Mac didn't want to hide away just yet.

Of course, there was another method to evade conscription, but this method was relatively brutal.

That was to self-mutilate, to poke out one's eyes or break one's own arms and legs.

If he remembered correctly, a lesson he had learned before, "Sai Weng Lost His Horse, How to Know It's Not a Blessing?" had spoken of this.

...

The next day.

As Wu Shan had said, yamen officials entered the village to press men into service. The whole village was in an uproar.

This time, it wasn't just yamen officials; the city garrison was also dispatched to assist.

Door after door of houses was kicked open.

"The northern Thien Su rebels are attacking! The time to achieve merit and establish a career has come!"

"Lo Tam, huh? Why is no one in this house?"

"Forty? Don't forty-year-olds have to go? You can still walk and jump!"

"What, you, a woman, want to enlist in your father's place? Scram!"

For a time, the whole village was filled with the sound of crying. Scenes of flesh and blood separation, husbands and wives parting, were everywhere.

But the Tran family and Truong Ha's family, because they had paid silver, were fortunately spared from the disaster.

...

Phuc Trach Village was originally not populous. After being ravaged like this, the whole village was in a state of mourning; every household was crying.

Before, no matter how hard and difficult life was, even during the previous tax collection, when villagers went out and saw others, they would still greet them with a smile.

But now, all smiles were gone.

Ironically, Luu Thu, because he hung out with those ruffians and was not home every day, actually escaped conscription.

Tran family home. Because of the impact of the conscription, with every household wailing, Han An Nuong's mood was also relatively low.

Tong Man was making funny faces to cheer Han An Nuong up.

"Uncle, this kind of life, when will it ever be over?" Han An Nuong hugged Tran Mac tightly, her voice soft and melting.

Tran Dai had also died not long after returning from being seriously wounded on the battlefield.

Han An Nuong knew that of these people sent to the battlefield, not even one in ten would return alive.

Hearing this, Tran Mac was silent. He didn't know when it would end. He knew that for such a massive peasant uprising to require the imperial court to conscript soldiers just to resist it, it often signified that a country was on the verge of collapse. This represented the true curtain rising on chaotic times.

At that time, order would collapse, chaotic phenomena would arise one after another, and human lives would truly be like grass.

Currently, people starving to death in a village, selling sons and daughters, were just child's play.

When that time came.

The human world would no longer be the human world.

White bones exposed in the wild, a thousand li without a cock's crow.

That would be Hell...